Books

  1. The Boy With the Thorn in His Side: A Memoir
    The Boy With the Thorn in His Side: A Memoir
  2. My Sister's Keeper: Learning to Cope with a Sibling's Mental Illness
    My Sister's Keeper: Learning to Cope with a Sibling's Mental Illness
  3. There Are Survivors: The Michael Cuccione Story
    There Are Survivors: The Michael Cuccione Story
  4. The Long Road Back, A Survivors Guide to Anorexia
    The Long Road Back, A Survivors Guide to Anorexia
  5. My Path Leads to Tibet: The Inspiring Story of How One Young Blind Woman Brought Hope to the Blind Children of Tibet
    My Path Leads to Tibet: The Inspiring Story of How One Young Blind Woman Brought Hope to the Blind Children of Tibet
  6. Chelsea : The Story of a Signal Dog
    Chelsea : The Story of a Signal Dog
  7. A Bar on Every Corner: Sobering Up in a Tempting World
    A Bar on Every Corner: Sobering Up in a Tempting World
  8. Get a Grip! : A Take-Charge Approach to Living With Arthritis
    Get a Grip! : A Take-Charge Approach to Living With Arthritis
  9. A Small Journal of Heroin Addiction
    A Small Journal of Heroin Addiction
  10. The Diary of Alice James
    The Diary of Alice James
  11. The Day the Voices Stopped: A Memoir of Madness and Hope
    The Day the Voices Stopped: A Memoir of Madness and Hope
  12. Bulletproof Principles for Striking Gold
    Bulletproof Principles for Striking Gold
  13. Somebody Somewhere [ABRIDGED]
    Somebody Somewhere [ABRIDGED]
  14. Nobody Nowhere [ABRIDGED]
    Nobody Nowhere [ABRIDGED]
  15. It Takes a Worried Man: A Memoir
    It Takes a Worried Man: A Memoir
  16. The Outsider : A Journey Into My Father's Struggle With Madness
    The Outsider : A Journey Into My Father's Struggle With Madness
  17. Miracle in the Making: The Adam Taliaferro Story
    Miracle in the Making: The Adam Taliaferro Story
  18. Helen Keller : A Life
    Helen Keller : A Life
  19. Alone in the Mainstream: A Deaf Woman Remembers Public School (Deaf Lives, Vol. 1)
    Alone in the Mainstream: A Deaf Woman Remembers Public School (Deaf Lives, Vol. 1)
  20. My Mother's Keeper: A Daughter's Memoir of Growing Up in the Shadow of Schizophrenia
    My Mother's Keeper: A Daughter's Memoir of Growing Up in the Shadow of Schizophrenia
  21. How I Became a Human Being: A Disabled Man's Quest for Independence (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography)
    How I Became a Human Being: A Disabled Man's Quest for Independence (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography)
  22. People With MS With the Courage to Give
    People With MS With the Courage to Give
  23. Angel Mommy: A Story of a Bulimic Mother
    Angel Mommy: A Story of a Bulimic Mother
  24. The Sound Of Snow Falling
    The Sound Of Snow Falling
  25. The Disability Experience: A Healing Journey
    The Disability Experience: A Healing Journey
The Boy with the Thorn in His Side: A Memoir
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Uncle Mame?
  • Bravo!
  • Gets to the heart
  • A backseat rider's view of Edmund White
  • Wonderful!
 The Boy with the Thorn in His Side: A Memoir
Keith Fleming
Manufacturer: Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060959304
Release Date: 2001-04-10

Book Description

At sixteen, Keith Fleming is so miserably defiant that he is locked in an adolescent mental hospital. Filled with despair, Keith's life is literally saved by his uncle, the writer Edmund White. Keith soon finds himself transformed as Uncle Ed arranges treatment for Keith's disfiguring acne, enrolls him in prep school, and instructs his nephew in a worldly view of life and love. Meanwhile, Uncle Ed is both strapped for cash and completely caught up in the beehive of social and sexual activity of 1970s gay Manhattan.

By turns lyrical, funny, and poignant, The Boy with the Thorn in His Side is full of fascinating characters and unexpected twists -- at once an odyssey into the extremes of the American 1970s, a universal tale of star-crossed teenage love, and an account of a deeply sensitive young person's struggle to find his place in the world.

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars Uncle Mame?.......2003-12-03

Keith Fleming is a pretty good storyteller. He really makes you picture the times, places and characters in his life. Especially strong is the evil Doctor at the hospital and his wonderful uncle in New York City. (Edmund White) These characters and moments really stand out.

However most of this book just rambles about and then ends with no purpose whatsoever. At the end I wondered "why did he write it" and "why did I read it?". I would not recommend this book because it just meanders and ends with no explanation. I need more of a story arc even from a biography.

The other thing that puzzled me was why he would paint such a wonderful loving tribute to his uncle and then ruin it by mentioning an offhand sexual advance by his uncle. It seemed out of place never explored his feelings behind it or why it was even mentioned. It was kind of unsavory without a reason for it.

Keith needed a good editor on this book and some guidance.

4 out of 5 stars Bravo!.......2001-08-09

This is one of the many memoirs / autobiographies, relating to the ubiquitous stories of 'troubled youth'. Flemmings emotional maturity and consistently strong writing has aloud him to tell the story of a turbulent adolescence akin to "Girl Interrupted", "Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius", etc. I was not drawn to this novel for Ed White, but rather found it in the bookstore Biography section by chance. I have seen criticisms of Flemming's dupe on the public as advertising this to be a memoir of Ed White, but it this really the case? At face value, this is a remarkable memoir of a troubled journey through adolescence devoid of all "poor me" sentiments that the other above-mentioned memoirs seem to convey. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone - it is a gem!

4 out of 5 stars Gets to the heart.......2001-04-08

I was going to buy this book as an anniversary present, but caught myself reading bits and pieces, until I had finished the whole thing. This is a well-written book that is very engaging. You laugh, cry, and wince as Fleming tells his story, and you close the book absolutely exhausted thinking about everything that happened within a relatively short time span. I recommend it for years to come.

4 out of 5 stars A backseat rider's view of Edmund White.......2001-01-12

"Just who is Keith Fleming and why is he tryng to slay me" might be a good subtitle for this short memoir. Frankly I bought the book because of my great admiration for Edmund White (the Uncle Ed of Keith's minor autobiography) and in the end all reasons for liking the book reflect back to that initial response. Yes, this is the life of an unfortunate, acneiform teenage product of yet another dysfunctional family unit whose saving grace is his finding solace with his brilliant writer uncle in New York. Keith Fleming writes well, has some pages when his prose actually begins to sing, but aside from his "growing up" experience with Edmund White, his story - full of despair and cruel circumstances -hardly registers as a precis for a book. But all criticism aside, Fleming does give us more insights into the person of Edmund White and it is refreshing to read passages that demonstrate White's warmth and humanity and caring that often his books fail to suggest. Far from being just a flamboyant social surface person, White, as drawn by his nephew, has more than a modicum of compassion for family, for adolescence, for the sticks and stones that make us falter as we mature. So, I think this young writer bears watching. Maybe next time his misery will not be too much with us.......

5 out of 5 stars Wonderful!.......2001-01-07

I found this memoir of Mr. Fleming's youth fascinating. It was extremely well written, vividly descriptive of his family and experiences with mother, father, psychiatrist, fellow patients, and finally, his loving uncle who rescued him from an ununderstanding world. I do not regard it as a "gay" book, but a moving description of a young man's journey through his youth, schooling, family, hospitalizations, love relationships. Anyone interested in young people especially, should find this as interesting as I did. I do recommend it.
The Boy with the Thorn in His Side: A Memoir
Average customer rating: Not rated
    		The Boy with the Thorn in His Side: A Memoir
    Keith Fleming
    Manufacturer: Perennial
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback
    ASIN: B000OEQ5KG

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